Contents
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Para to Teacher Program at Pitt State University – for Administrators & Paraprofessionals
Pinnacle Grading – for Elementary Principals
March 11 Professional Learning Information – for All Administrators
Last Call for Taste of 500 – for All Administrators
ESL Openings-Procedures – for All Administrators
Teacher Transfer – for All Administrators
HR Related Board Items (Corrected) – for All Administrators
New Items
Previous Items
Para to Teacher Program at Pitt State University
From Michelle Colvin
Mark Daczewitz from Pitt State University will meet with all interested paraprofessionals in the Washington High School Cafeteria (7340 Leavenworth Road) from 8:30 to 9:00 on March 11. He will be talking about the Master of Arts in Teaching Special Education program which is a licensure program designed for para-educators. It is a two year, 36 hour, online program that begins each summer. Applicants must have a baccalaureate degree in a non-teaching area and at least one year experience working as a para-educator. The program allows teacher candidates to earn a Kansas teaching license in High Incidence Special Education grades 6-12. During the course of the program, candidates must be employed as full time para-educators in accredited Kansas schools, working with secondary students who have high-incidence learning needs. Please email me and your building principal if you plan to attend this information session.
Pinnacle Grading
From Alan King
This is a copy of an email that will go out to teachers today.
Most of you have already been working on this. With the exception of a change in submission date, there are few changes in these directions than what was provided first and second quarter. Just as we did second quarter, only the comprehensive grade for the 3rd quarter will appear on the report card, which means the grade that appears is computed on the work of the student from the first day of the school year to the current point in time.
Grades for the elementary report cards are to be submitted by 5:00 pm on March 11. At that time, report cards will be downloaded and verified before being sent to the printer.
Scores on the report card should be based on where students should be at this point in the year in achievement of the standards, not on where the students should be by the end of the year. Grades should also address from the beginning of the year until this point. The Pinnacle system will automatically calculate this.
The building counselor or the principal???s designee will check to be sure that behavior and effort grades are completed for every student. Whether or not grades are to be finalized is up to the principal.
For these first 3 quarters, the GVC (pacing) guides show that most of the standards (and as a result most of the domains) have been addressed. The number of domains that have not been addressed up to this point should be minimal. (The Pinnacle system will automatically populate blank domains with NA???do not enter anything.)
It is important that you complete all areas of the report card for which you are responsible. Any blanks will automatically be filled with NA at the domain level (which is what appears on the report cards). Remembering to complete the two areas listed below before finalizing your report cards will provide a clearer picture for parents.
1. EFFORT???Effort has to be completed for ALL Content areas. An NA in effort is not appropriate. You have to enter Effort through the Domain section of EACH CONTENT TAB in the grade book. Using the drop down menu within a specific content, change it from Assignments to Learning Standards???Domain. The effort column is the last one listed in the domain area. Symbols or numbers may used in the following scale:
??? + or 2 Above the expected amount of effort
??? = or 1 Expected amount of effort
??? ??? or 0 More Effort is needed
??? If you enter numbers, the system will convert them to the appropriate symbol.
??? The number 3 is not used in the effort scale.
2. BEHAVIOR???Behavior has to be completed by the Homeroom Teacher of the student. An NA in any behavior area is not appropriate. You have to enter Behavior through the Domain section of the 1(Y) Homeroom Tab in the grade book. Using the drop down menu within a 1(Y) Homeroom, change it from Assignments to Learning Standards???Domain. There are six areas that are to be completed using the following scale:
??? + or 2 Above the expected amount of effort
??? = or 1 Expected amount of effort
??? ??? or 0 More Effort is needed
??? If you enter numbers, the system will convert them to the appropriate symbol.
??? The number 3 is not used in the effort scale.
You can find most of the answers to your questions around the grade book at FAQs for the Pinnacle Gradebook Page at https://goo.gl/7y4TCw
March 11 Professional Learning Information
From Alan King
This is a copy of an email that will go out to staff today.
District level groups in Outlook have been used to share this information. Please share this with anyone who needs the information and did not receive it. Please contact the Help Desk (support@kckps.org) to request that your name be added to the appropriate group if you are not receiving this information directly.
Each month our district hosts a content-focused professional learning session on the quarterly professional learning days or on a Wednesday during the other months. The purpose of these sessions is for us to come together from across our district to focus our learning on our specific content areas. Just as teachers have to publish their objectives, we publish the outcomes, descriptions and locations of our learning sessions, and a description of how the professional learning addresses our district focus on literacy in all content areas as well as the name of the person to contact for each content should you have any questions. This year the majority of content sessions each month will focus on a common understanding of the process of rigorous unit development.
Information about the March 11 Professional Learning can be found at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qRErcas6eQnaUIP-fIZC-2z9LSEO0hNsGkyKQIBV7FM/edit?usp=sharing
If you have questions about your session, please contact the content supervisor listed in the content area.
A list of dates for district level professional learning for this year and next can be found here.
Last Call for Taste of 500
From Josh Mathiasmeier and Miguel Martin
Students from every school in the district have the opportunity to let their voice be heard when it comes to school meals for next year and beyond. The district???s annual ???Taste of 500??? food tasting fair allows students to taste-test possible new menu items and provide their feedback.
This year???s event is scheduled for Thursday, March 31 at F.L. Schlagle High School. There will be two sessions:
Noon to 1:45 p.m. for students
1:45 to 3 p.m. for district staff and others
The early time was set for students to allow for bus transportation from the Transportation Department.
Each school is allowed to send up to 20 students to the event. If a school wishes to send additional students, arrangements can be made. Nutritional Services will pay for bus transportation, but schools must:
RSVP to Nutritional Services and Transportation with your school name and the number of students you will be bringing.
RSVPs are due by March 10. Once all RSVPs are completed, a bus schedule will be developed and distributed to all schools.
ESL Openings-Procedures
From Kristen Scott
Principals,
We will continue with the process that Dr. Miguel had established regarding staffing ESL openings.
1. If you have an opening and are considering an individual, you need to communicate with Kristen Scott.
2. A member of the ESL department will need to be part of the interview process.
3. All decisions will be made in collaboration with the building and ESL department.
If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Kristen Scott.
Teacher Transfer
From Lisa Wilson
The window for certified voluntary transfer requests will be open from March 1, 2016 through April 15, 2016.
To access the request form teachers can log in to the employee portal and see the link on the left.
The window to request a transfer closes on April 15, 2016 and requests submitted after this date will not be accepted.
Teachers who wish to be considered for a transfer, even if a vacancy does not currently exist, must submit a request to be considered.
All voluntary transfers will be completed by the last working day for elementary principals. If you do not receive notice of a transfer you will remain at your same site unless notified otherwise by Human Resources.
Board Items
From Lisa Wilson
Correction ??? All Human Resource related board agenda items must be turned in to Lisa Wilson the Tuesday before the board for the regular agenda and the Thursday before the Board for the addendum. In the case of an emergency add, please let Lisa Wilson or Dr. Kelli Mather know, but understand these will be exceptions.